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TOUR REPORT: Henrik Stenson goes DEEP on his Callaway Legacy Black irons from 2013

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If you love Florida golf, I have sad news to report: This week is the finale of the four-week long Florida Swing on the PGA Tour. What started in Palm Beach Gardens for the Honda Classic in February ends with the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor this week.

Now for the good news: We have an awesome Tour Report from the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort this week.

What makes it so great? Well, for one, I finally tracked down Henrik Stenson for a deep dive into his Callaway Legacy Black irons that he’s been playing since 2013. I had so many questions for him about the irons that needed answers, and I finally got them.

Also, world long driver Maurice Allen stunned us with some truly incredible irons and wedges, Zach Johnson revealed new unreleased irons, and Tommy “2 Gloves” Gainey thrills us with his unique putter.

Let’s get into this week’s Tour Report where we send off the Florida Swing in style.

Cam Smith speaks on his Players Championship winning gear

Before we get into the gear from this week, we have a bit of news about the winning gear from last week. Cam Smith, the 2022 Players Champion, joined our “Two Guys Talkin Golf” podcast to talk about his equipment, including his blacked-out T100 irons.

While I do suggest listening to the entire podcast, Smith’s appearance comes in the last 12 minutes of the episode (around the 45-minute mark). Check it out on SoundCloud below.

Zach Johnson reveals all new PXG irons

PXG staffer and two-time major champion Zach Johnson came to the 2022 Valspar Championship with brand new, unreleased PXG “Black Label Elite 0311T Gen5” irons. From the looks of things, it appears that the back cavity features a multi-material construction, presumably to raise forgiveness on off-center strikes based on the different-colored material on the toe and heel sections.

If I had to guess, I’d say the silver sections are made of heavier Tungsten to shift weight toward the perimeter, but since PXG hasn’t yet spoken publicly about the irons, that’s all just speculation.

To see what GolfWRX forum members are saying about the new irons, check out the comment thread here.

Tommy “2 Gloves” Gainey is using a rarely seen putter

Mr. Two Gloves doesn’t do things the way most pro golfers do. He doesn’t have a cookie cutter swing that hits perfect planes, he wears two gloves, and he also uses a putter that, if memory serves, no other PGA Tour player uses.

Since at least 2015, Gainey has employed an Odyssey Backstyrke Blade putter that was released to the public back in 2010. Being that the shaft enters the club head in a uniquely rearward position, the design helps put golfers’ hands into a forward press position that encourages hitting up on the golf ball. It also provides an unimpeded look at the club face for easier alignment.

Obviously, the Backstryke is far from traditional looking so most golfers haven’t given it a chance. 2 Gloves is not a traditional golfer, though, and the Backstryke has remained in his bag all these years.

Check out Tommy Gainey’s full 2022 WITB here.

Henrik Stenson speaks on his Callaway Legacy Black irons

Since 2013, Stenson has used Callaway Legacy Black irons that were a limited release in 2013 and were never available in North American markets. Stenson’s longtime affair with the irons, and their ultra-limited availability, has made the Legacy Black irons certified classics.

It’s fascinating to me that Stenson has used the same model irons for 9 years now, so I was excited to finally have the chance to speak with him in-depth about them.

Our full Q&A with Stenson is over on PGATOUR.com, but here’s a few interesting snippets from the talk:

“I came off the U.S. Open in 2013, and I hit too many fliers at Merion. My caddie Gareth [Lord] at the time walks into Callaway and asks them to give us some options that don’t fly too much out of the rough, and the boys in Europe built up the Legacy Black. When the irons showed up, they felt great and looked good, and I didn’t hit too many fliers with them. They’ve been in the bag ever since…

“Callaway comes out with some good looking irons every year. It’s just been, I guess I’m a little old school. I know what works for me and I like the look of that. We don’t really have much of an off-season. It’s not like we have two or three months at home to test new stuff. That’s probably the one thing in the bag that it’s like, OK that definitely stays. When they come out with new wedges, we put them in and test them, and new fairway woods even.”

Tommy Fleetwood’s bag tag

Honestly, not much needs to be said about Fleetwood’s TaylorMade bag tag. It’s simply glorious, and I wanted everyone to see it.

Although, he did recently shave his beard after being in a bad mood, so the bag tag may need an update unless he plans on growing it back out.

Sam lets the traditional gap wedge Burn

Valspar’s defending champion made a very interesting wedge switch in the off-season that could be part of a new wave of equipment choices on Tour.

Recently, we saw Dylan Frittelli start using a 1-of-1 Callaway Apex TCB iron for his sand wedge instead of using a traditional wedge shape like most golfers do.

Burns has prescribed to a similar tactic by replacing his Callaway Jaws MD5 50-degree wedge with an “Attack Wedge” that’s part of the Apex TCB set. After noticing his wedge game from 100-150 yards needed some improvement, Burns realized he needed a more forgiving option than his traditional blade wedge to clean up his distance control.

That leaves us normal golfers to answer the question, “Why do we use less-forgiving traditional wedges instead of wedges that are part of the iron set?”

I think it’s time for all of us to do some wedge testing to figure out that answer for ourselves.

For the full story on Burns’ wedge switch, check it out here on PGATOUR.com.

Are these the coolest irons and wedges you’ve ever seen?

World long driver Maurice Allen showed up to the Valspar Pro-Am with a set of absolute stunners for his irons and wedges.

The angular surface and copper rainbow finish gives these Itobori clubs a staggering level of bag appeal. For those who may not know, Itobori custom golf clubs are designed by Mayuki Takai, based in Nagoya, Japan.

Allen is bagging the company’s Cavity Irons, but there’s a slew of different models as per the Itobori website.

We haven’t spoken just yet, but my promise to you is that we will get Maurice Allen on the TG2 podcast to speak on how he got a hold of these gorgeous irons, how they feel, and how they perform. The world needs to know.

And with that, we close out the final Tour Report from the Florida Swing in 2022. We’ll be back next week in Austin, Texas for the 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. Get your match play brackets ready for golf’s version of March Madness.

Check out all of our photos from the 2022 Valspar Championship here.

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He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Pingback: TOUR REPORT: Adam Scott’s latest club switch, and a 5-wood from 12 years ago – GolfWRX

  2. HR Fernández

    Mar 20, 2022 at 11:26 am

    Reading Stenson’s irons story, among others of the same, only tells me that OEM’s and fitters are full of it. All they want is for you to buy new equipment every year, and in reality, it won’t be much different than your current setup.

    Unless you are a tour player and you wear out your grooves chances are your clubs are going to outlive you.

    Save your money, and if you buy a new set of clubs is because you want to, not because some jebroni is trying to get you to spend money on equipment which will do nothing for you.

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Whats in the Bag

Steve Stricker WITB 2024 (April)

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Driver: Titleist TSR3 (9 degrees, C4 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Motore Speeder VC 7.2 X

3-wood: Titleist 915F (13.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX

Hybrid: Titleist 816 H1 (17 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Motore Speeder VC 9.2 X

Irons: Titleist T200 (3, 4), Titleist T100 (5-9)
Shafts: Project X 6.5

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM8 (46-10F @55), Titleist Vokey SM10 (54-10S @53), Titleist Vokey SM4 (60 @59)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 w/Sensicore

Putter: Odyssey White Hot No. 2

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Grip Rite

Check out more in-hand photos of Steve Stricker’s clubs here.

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Whats in the Bag

Alex Fitzpatrick WITB 2024 (April)

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  • Alex Fitzpatrick what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic. 

Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 7 X

Hybrid: Ping G430 (19 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 10 TX

Irons: Ping iCrossover (2), Titleist T100 (4-PW)
Shafts: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 9 TX (2), Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Tour 120 X (4-9)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (50-12F, 56-12D, 60-08M)
Shafts: Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Tour 120 X

Putter: Bettinardi SS16 Dass

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

Check out more in-hand photos of Alex Fitzpatrick’s clubs here.

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Equipment

What’s the perfect mini-driver/shaft combo? – GolfWRXers discuss

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In our forums, our members have been discussing Mini-Drivers and accompanying shafts. WRXer ‘JamesFisher1990’ is about to purchase a BRNR Mini and is torn on what shaft weight to use, and our members have been sharing their thoughts and set ups in our forum.

Here are a few posts from the thread, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.

  • PARETO: “New BRNR at 13.5. Took it over to TXG (Club Champ but TXG will always rule) in Calgary for a fit. Took the head down to 12, stuck in a Graphite Design AD at 3 wood length and 60g. Presto- numbers that rivaled my G430Max but with waaaaay tighter dispersion. Win.”
  • driveandputtmachine: “Still playing a MIni 300.  The head was only 208, so I ordered a heavier weight and play it at 3 wood length.  I am playing a Ventus Red 70.   I play 70 grams in my fairways.  I use it mainly to hit draws off the tee.  When I combine me, a driver, and trying to hit a draw it does not work out well most of the time.  So the MIni is for that. As an aside, I have not hit the newest BRNR, but the previous model wasn’t great off the deck.  The 300 Mini is very good off the deck.”
  • JAM01: “Ok, just put the BRNR in the bag along side a QI10 max and a QI10 3 wood. A load of top end redundancy. But, I have several holes at my two home courses where the flight and accuracy of the mini driver helps immensely. Mine is stock Proforce 65 at 13.5, I could see a heavier shaft, but to normal flex, as a nice alternative.”

Entire Thread: “What’s the perfect Mini-Driver/Shaft combo? – GolfWRXers discuss”

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